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Reading Books and Playing Games All Day

Mass Effect and Dragon Age and Zelda, Oh My!

I recently played through The Witcher 3 and wrote blog posts about my progress at pivotal moments in the story so I could record my thoughts. Some sort of final wrap-up will still be occurring, though I haven’t decided if I want to write something here or create a video, but in the meantime, I have decided that I really enjoy discussing my thoughts throughout the game using this multiple post format. Writing one review doesn’t always encapsulate my feelings about longer games because my opinions can change multiple times over a lengthy title. Therefore, I have multiple projects that I intend to be working on over the next few months.

First of all, it should shock no one who comes here often when I say that I am a huge Bioware fan. In particular, all seven games in the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series are among my favorites of all time. After seeing that Livid Lightningis working through a platinum trophy run of the original Mass Effect trilogy, I decided that I wanted to do something similar. Since I’m playing on PC and therefore don’t have trophies to track, I have decided that I will be going through all seven of these games on their hardest respective difficulties.

This is going to be a huge challenge, as I rarely opt for anything above normal mode, but I love these games and want to see how they hold up when I can’t just spam the attack button without any thought or effort put into it. I’m starting with the original Mass Effect, as my husband is playing through the Halo series on legendary mode and it’s fun to play our favorite respective science fiction series side-by-side. While I didn’t technically have insanity mode unlocked by default, a quick console command changed that, eliminating the need to do a hardcore run in order to unlock the hardest difficulty that I actually wish to play.

In a similar vein to my updates on The Witcher 3, I intend to occasionally write an update post where I discuss my feelings about my playthrough as I tackle these difficult runs. Since I have already played all of these games in the past, I will be focusing on the gameplay through sharing which bosses gave me trouble and which were a breeze, as well as discussing the different choices and consequences that players can make throughout the story. At the end of each game, I will write a bigger post about my experience as a whole and actually discuss how difficult the experience ultimately was for me. I cannot say how often these updates will occur, as they will probably come at different frequencies depending upon what game I’m playing, but I am really excited to get started with this project!

Now, I imagine that the difficulty of my Bioware runs may get overwhelming sometimes, and I also may not always want to play through games I have already played before and may crave something new. Therefore, I’m excited to announce that I am finally going to tackle The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild! When I decided to tackle The Witcher 3, I really didn’t anticipate enjoying it as much as I did because I disliked the early hours. Given that I had a similar reaction to my early Zelda experience, I have decided that 2019 is the year that I give games with bad first impressions a second attempt! This will be a casual playthrough that I work on as I’m slowly losing my will to live in Mass Effect, but I intend to occasionally provide updates as I go through and write an analysis post with my thoughts at the end.

In general, I plan to write a lot more update posts about my thoughts on games as I go through them. I love to discuss my thoughts and feelings with others and it’s a lot of fun! While I’m a little terrified of what I have on my gaming plate right now, I think it’s going to be a fun experience and I can’t wait to get started! Have you beaten any Bioware games on their highest difficulty, or maybe just have a love for Breath of the Wild? Let me know in the comments below!

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Good luck with these difficult runs and with trying BotW again. All the talk of Mass Effect lately (well you and Ellen) makes me want to finally try a renegade run but I have a few more games planned first.

I liked BotW but didn’t finish it. I just got a bit bored of it (I feel bad for saying that) but I just didn’t want to keep going. I played for a long time and feel like I gave it a really good shot but given I wasn’t wanting to carry on at the point I put it down.

I worry about feeling the same way about BotW, but everyone loves it so much and I want to at least give it a shot. When everyone loves a game, even if I’m not totally convinced of it, I feel a compulsion to give it a shot. At least that way, I can give an actual opinion on it.

It’s a ton of fun so far and actually making me enjoy the first Mass Effect more than I thought I would. When I played on casual, it felt dated and clunky becuase I was playing it as a straight shooter. Playing on insanity, however, the tactical micro-management side of the game comes out and it’s WONDERFUL.

Mass Effect is a series I LOVED, but I don’t know if I can ever go back because I have “my” version of how things happened and I’m content to leave it that way. Of course, I could always go back to Andromeda…a game I keep forgetting I own…..

Good luck with Breath of the Wild! I’m saving up reward points to hopefully get a Switch later this year and finally play that for myself!

I’m doing a full renegade run this time, as I went paragon first. Honestly, I like renegade more so far. Yeah, Shepard does some awful things and is kind of evil, but it makes more logical sense that she’d be pretty irritated that she’s trying to save the galaxy and people keep forcing her to do these small fetch quests for them.

Ha, that’s kind of how I feel about my Andromeda playthrough. I’ve been specially trained to find a new home for humanity, but sure, I’ll crawl all over the ship figuring out where your electrical short is because…you can’t do it yourself?

Good luck with Breath of the Wild!! I have finished it and I have to say: What a game!!! It’s beautiful and the gameplay is amazing!! Keep us posted on your journey; would love to hear your opinion on it!